, a fallen angel who inhabits bodies. She has no prior knowledge on the body she inhabits so she must learn along the way who she has inhabited and how to act as her host would act.

The book begins as Mercy awakes in the body of Carmen Zappota, a shy, choir singer on the way to a yearly singing "camp" where several schools congregate together at the small town of Paradise to rehearse and perform at a yearly concert.

Carmen is boarding with The Daley's, a grief-stricken family that was still trying to cope with the loss of their daughter two years prior. Lauren Daley, also a singer and touted the next best thing in the small town was kidnapped from her bedroom. Whilst the rest of the town and her parents believe that she is no longer coming home, Ryan Daley, Lauren's twin believes that he can still feel his twin's soul nearby. Ryan has dedicated his life in search for Lauren.

Mercy begins by simply trying to help Carmen come out of her shell, to help her not be pushed around, but as she slowly unravels her purpose in being in Carmen's body, she realises that it's not Carmen that needs her help but The Daley's, more specifically, Ryan. Mercy believes Ryan's intuition and soon takes it upon herself to help search for Lauren.

However, when another talented singer goes missing, Ryan and Mercy is faced with the harsh realisation that the kidnapper is somewhere close and they must move swiftly before someone else disappears.

Review

Mercy is Rebecca Lim, Australian, Melbourne-based Author's debut novel. Mercy, the book was quite bland and lacked a strong storyline. I thoroughly enjoyed the mysterious aspect of the book. I enjoyed the fact that I didn't know who the kidnapper was until the very end and also the partnership between Mercy and Ryan whilst they deciphered the clues. I truly enjoy a good mystery book and I believe that Mercy qualifies for a good mystery book. The kidnapper's identity wasn't blatantly obvious nor was his motives, I believe that's what a good mystery book entails.

However, seeing as Mercy is touted as a paranormal book with Mercy being a fallen angel, in this aspect this book failed miserably. For starters I would not have known that Mercy was a fallen angel had it not been for the blurb of the book. Furthermore, seeing as Mercy is meant to be an introduction to the remaining books in the series, I didn't feel like we, as the readers, were thoroughly introduced to Mercy the character nor her fallen angel background.

The paranormal sections of this book is very vague, to say the least. We only get a window into this part of the book via dreams and by the small appearances of paranormal characters. Again Luc and the other characters that appears in Mercy's dream isn't properly introduced, once again, if it not for the blurb I would not have understood who Luc was and why and what he was appearing in her dreams for.

However, I've vowed not to judge first books in series too harshly, as I've previously disliked first books only to enjoy the series when I'm able to read it in it's complete set.

Despite the lack of clarity in the paranormal aspect of Mercy, Rebecca Lim's writing was beautiful, and I can fully appreciate and visualise what she's trying to create, the ideas that she has for this series, I think she just failed short of the execution. I will definitely still be reading Exile as I hope to have the story clarified as the series' progresses.

2
comments:

I absolutely agree with everything you said! The mystery was good but the paranormal part was so vague as to be non-existant. I also would not have realised Mercy was a fallen angel if I hadn't read the blurb.

I went on to read Exile as I was also hoping to get some answers, but I was sorely disappointed. It is still as vague as ever and it had such a frustrating ending I literally threw the book across the room! I won't be trying any more books in the series. But I hope you enjoy Exile more than I did :)